- This topic has 5 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Good afternoon, folks.
Well, it’s a rainy / flashy-bangy / WXugly day out today so KB7JZI is once again off the air. There are some foolish souls out there who taunt the weather and tempt the lightning — may the magic smoke long reside within their radios. I am not one of those. When it gets ugly out, I pull the plugs and disconnect the FLASHKA-BOOM attracting sky magnets. Once you’ve seen the light and heard the bang at the same time … it’s already waaaay too late to care.
Jerry is the go-to man for info on how to discourage lightning from preferring your antennas above all else. I won’t presume to provide second-best info on that here. Go to Jerry’s post and get the original skinny on it there.
This is about trying to keep those lesser static snaps from getting into the house and dancing all over stuff you’d just as soon it left alone. And the best way to do that is a combination of “air-gap” and blocking. But you’re not gonna block something which has already come down several thousand feet. All you can really do is give it somewhere else to go.
The materials list is easy.
Copper sheeting
Staples
Screws
Scrap lumber bits to fit
Ergo, the brute-force blocking plate.
Figure 1. The pass-thru
Figure 2. The blocking plate
Figure 3. During storm configuration
Hope this inspired.
Cheers!
Dan
And for the curious … from the top left corner,
Top Row — 80m, 20m, 2m/70cm, AUX-TESTING, 2m-AUX
Bottom Row — GND, 40m, 10m, 6m, RX1, RX2
73
This happened last week.
This is what we use on the AC lines to protect our customer’s public safety equipment at their tower sites. They seem to work fairly well. This one did an excellent job of protecting the repeater by blowing apart and blowing itself out of the AC wall outlet. It was not taken apart, it blew apart! The repeater was unharmed. These are much cheaper to replace than repeaters.
The generator controller board, generator transfer switch and tower strobe/beacon controller did not fare so well.
For the antenna lines we use PolyPhaser units that are properly grounded.
Stay safe out there…
Charles WA5VHU
Are the UHF barrel connectors mounted with plastic insulators? Is that clear plexiglass the berrells are mounted to?
If so, wouldn’t it be better to use a sheet of copper or brass or aluminum and ground everything?
I’m thinking there’s no more magic smoke left in that thing.
The white plastic washers are PVC. They are there for stress relief / lubricating washer surface to avoid cracking the plexiglass. I gave some consideration to using a metal panel, but I also kinda like being able to see through it. What I need to do next is replace the prototype wood parts, braces and wire looms with precision cut waxed Bois d’arc both inside and out.
Installing a 50′ tower is on the to-do list, too.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.